Editing Holmfirth (section)

==History==
The name ''Holmfirth'' derives from [[Old English]] ''holegn'' ('holly'), in the name of [[Holme, West Yorkshire]], compounded with Middle English ''frith'' ('wood'). It thus meant 'the woods at Holme'.<ref>Victor Watts (ed.), ''The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names Based on the Collections of the English Place-Name Society'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), s.v.</ref>

The town originally grew up around a corn mill and bridge in the 13th century. Three hundred years later Holmfirth expanded rapidly as the growing cloth trade grew, and the production of stone and slates from the surrounding quarries increased. The present [[parish church]] was built in 1778 after the church built in 1476 was swept away in a flood the previous year. Dr [[Albert Lister Peace]] was the church's organist, at the age of nine, in the early 1850s.<ref>''A Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', [[John Hullah]] (1900)</ref> In 1850 [[Holmfirth railway station]] opened, on the branch line built by the [[Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway]] Company.

Local men who served and died in the [[First World War|First]] and [[Second World War]]s are commemorated on the Holme Valley War Memorial found outside Holme Valley Memorial Hospital.

===Bamforth & Co===
Holmfirth was the home of [[Bamforth & Co Ltd]], who were well known for their [[Postcard#Seaside postcards|cheeky seaside postcards]] – although around the time of the [[First World War]], they produced postcards of a more sober nature. The printing works on Station Road has now been converted into residential flats.

Bamforth's company were early pioneers of film-making, before they abandoned the business in favour of postcards.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/holmfirths-bamforths-saucy-seaside-postcards-4987682|title=Holmfirth's Bamforth's saucy seaside postcards to be relaunched today on 100th anniversary – gallery of postcards here|date=28 September 2010|work=Huddersfield Examiner|access-date=13 January 2018}}</ref> During the early 1900s Holmfirth was well known for film making;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/532480/|title=BFI Screenonline: Bamforth, James (1842–?) Biography|website=Screenonline.org.uk|access-date=13 January 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bradford/films/film_locations_kirklees.shtml|title=BBC – Bradford and West Yorkshire – Films – Local films for local people|publisher=BBC|access-date=13 January 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/bradford/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_9398000/9398137.stm|title=Holmfirth's film maker in focus|date=15 February 2011|work=BBC News|access-date=13 January 2018}}</ref> During the periods 1898–1900 and 1913–1915 Bamforth and Co. produced what the [[British Film Institute]] describes as 'a modest but historically significant collection of films'.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/449654/|title=BFI Screenonline: Film Studios and Industry Bodies > Bamforth and Co.|website=Screenonline.org.uk|access-date=13 January 2018}}</ref>

===Flooding===
{{Main|Holmfirth floods}}
There are a number of instances when [[flood]]ing has occurred in the Holme Valley affecting Holmfirth and other settlements in the valley. The earliest recorded Holmfirth flood was in 1738<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ckcricketheritage.org.uk/southkirklees/holmfirth/docs/holmfirth_downyourway.pdf|title=Cricket Heritage of Holmfirth|website=Ckcricketheritage.org.uk|access-date=3 August 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090816081202/http://www.ckcricketheritage.org.uk/southkirklees/holmfirth/docs/holmfirth_downyourway.pdf|archive-date=16 August 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref> and the most recent was 1944. The most severe flood occurred early on the morning of 5 February 1852, when the embankment of the Bilberry Reservoir collapsed causing the deaths of 81 people. Following a severe storm in 1777 the [[River Holme]] burst its banks, sweeping away people and property with the loss of three lives; the stone church built in 1476, was also swept away. A storm in 1821 again caused the river to burst its banks. The flooding on the night of 29 May 1944 was not nationally reported and it was then overshadowed by the [[Normandy landings|D-Day landings]] the following week.

<gallery mode="packed" heights="120">
File:HolmfirthCentral(RLH)2007-03-21(1Mb).jpg| View across Holmfirth to [[Castle Hill, Huddersfield|Castle Hill]], Huddersfield, taken from Dunsley Bank Road
File:Holmfirth2.jpg|Holmfirth centre showing the parish church
File:Lodge's Supermarket (now derelict) - geograph.org.uk - 500159.jpg|Former supermarket built spanning the [[River Holme]]
</gallery>